I guess it's not meaningful to have questions and answers with "where is package X" and "On CTAN. And on dev page Y". So I suggest closing, as Sony got the information, either as too localized or as a duplicate to the question to which @percusse linked.
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Stefan Kottwitz♦Dec 10 '12 at 13:07

1

@StefanKottwitz I agree, voted for duplicate. And for the users of hobby packege in answers; May I suggest that you put this info as a comment to make sure that users are directed to the package?
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percusseDec 10 '12 at 13:09

2

I've reopened as it's normal to give the OP a reasonable time to make a good case for a question.
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Joseph Wright♦Dec 10 '12 at 14:50

2 Answers
2

The easiest way to keep up with your TeX library is to download the TeX Live Utility. You can find it in several places if you Google it; however, if you download the MacTeXExtras file from the MacTeX website you can find a copy of it there along with some other useful applications for LaTeX. Using the TeX Live Utility you can download, update, remove individual packages from a repository you specify or just use the default. You can also simply update your entire TeX Library at once if you like. Hobby is among the available packages in the list, but is not installed by default, so just highlight it and click install.

Thanks for the answer. I think my method of installing (described by steps 1-4 above) Hobby is OK. In any case, I followed your steps and reinstalled Hobby. However, I still get the same error message when I try to compile Claudio's code. The problem is, I have lost interest. I will probably try to find a solution by next Hanukkah.
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SonyFeb 16 '13 at 14:41

I assume this answer satisfies my question as stated even though reason for asking the question is unresolved. Therefore, I accept this answer.
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SonyFeb 16 '13 at 15:04

The hobby library is not part of the core TikZ/pgf bundle, hence will not be found in the TikZ CVS. The code is released to CTAN, which means that it will appear in an 'up to date' TeX Live or MiKTeX package manager for 'managed' installation.

If you need to install the package 'by hand', then from CTAN get the necessary files (all the .tex files and the .sty file except hobby_doc.tex). These need to be installed in your local TeX tree, the details of which vary slightly depending on your operating system. For Linux users, we have How do I install an individual package on a Linux system?, which also has some advice useful for TeX Live users on other platforms. Specific instructions for MiKTeX appear in for example Create a local texmf tree in MiKTeX.

One thing to emphasise here (since it is explicitly mentioned in the question) is that, to a large extent, so long as a file is in TeX's search path then where it is in that path is not important (for an exception see Why isn't kpathsea picking up my local version of a file?). For a user texmf tree (as in the question), it is good practice to have some structure and good practice for that structure to reflect the "standard" structure but by no means obligatory.